Last week more than a dozen attorneys general gathered in New York. You might think they were there to discuss how to combat crime, the heroin epidemic… maybe even terrorism. They weren’t. Instead they were conferring on how to use the law to punish scientists and researchers who question climate change orthodoxy.
That’s right—if your scientific research bucks the…

The one place where freedom of expression and the open mind should prevail is on college campuses, right? Isn’t that what liberal education is supposed to be about — the free and open inquiry into history, science and the arts in order to understand how humanity has understood itself for millennia?
But if that is so, why has the university become its opposite: an…

Ever since its creation in 1947, the National Security Council has been the chief vehicle for coordinating national security advice for the President of the United States.[1] Over the years, Presidents have experimented with different NSC structures and organizations with varying degrees of success. They have tried strong advisors and weak ones. They have had small staffs…

The stakes are high -- very high. Finding a replacement for deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will be a battle royal. But why should one government official's position be so existentially important?
Yes, control of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance, but that begs the question of why the court itself is so powerful. Could it be that the answer to that…

For the last seven years we have witnessed an unprecedented experiment based on a fundamental question: What would the world look like if the United States pulled back from its traditional leadership role? That was after all, the key thrust of President Barack Obama’s new foreign policy. He promised to embark on a radically new way of dealing with the world—one where we…

Last week’s U.S.-China summit offers an object lesson in how President Obama conducts foreign policy. All the rhetoric, assumptions and diplomatic tics of the Obama Doctrine are there. And the outcomes, as usual, are not good.
For example, no matter how provocative China is, it must be, according to Mr. Obama, “engaged.” It may launch a devastating cyberattack against…

What a mess. President Obama says he wants to take in at least 10,000 refugees from the Middle East. Meanwhile Russia’s Vladimir Putin is sending fighter aircraft and troops to prop up a Syrian leader that Mr. Obama has said over and over again must go. The 50 or so Syrian rebels that we spent roughly $1 million apiece to train and equip have disappeared. Hundreds of…

Something’s amiss with the world’s economy. And it goes way beyond stock-market woes in China and elsewhere.
Economists point to debt and low economic growth as the culprits, but this explanation only touches the surface. To turn around the world’s economy, we’ll need to understand the deeper problems.
A study just published by the Heritage Foundation provides some…

You’ve heard the argument. If Congress turns down the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran will rush to get a nuclear bomb within two to three months. Our only alternative then is war.
But what about Congress voting “no” and re-adjusting the terms of the agreement?
Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, recently made such a…

Let's cut to the chase: Does the Iran deal make war more or less likely?
"No deal means a greater chance of more war in the Middle East," President Obama says. His critics disagree. They think it will make war more likely. So which is it?
Let's break it down.
First, the Iran agreement does not stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. It may slow it down, but in 15…

Foreign affairs took a surrealistic turn last week. The Joint Chiefs of Staff released a report admitting that nation states like Russia and China pose a greater threat than previously thought. Yet, almost concurrently, the Pentagon announced it will cut the Army by 40,000 soldiers. At this rate the Army will soon be the smallest it has been since 1940 — not what you’d…

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s lament last week that “words no longer have meaning” got me to thinking. I don’t claim to know Chief Justice John Roberts‘ motivations in deciding in favor of Obamacare, but I do know that his deconstruction of the meaning of language is increasingly commonplace in our culture. Could his willingness to bend the meaning of the word…

This year the United Nations celebrates its 70th birthday. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes it’s a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to reflect on the organization’s history. He’s right, but we should also think about its future. And one of the things we should be rethinking, as Americans, is how much we pay for the United Nations.
The U.S. is the largest…

Seventy years ago, the five victors of World War II and 46 other signatory nations ratified the United Nations Charter, thus making the U.N. an official international body. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is using the anniversary to celebrate its accomplishments. He says, "The year 2015 is a once-in-a generation opportunity."
It is indeed. The year is a chance not only to…

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